Luka Doncic comfortably remains among the NBA's best and biggest stars in the third return of All-Star Game fan votes released Thursday, moving up to No. 3 overall. He passed Boston's Kyrie Irving for the third spot since the previous voting update.

The Mavericks rookie checks in at second overall in the Western Conference, behind only Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. Rounding out the West's top five are Golden State's Stephen Curry, Minnesota's Derrick Rose and Oklahoma City's Paul George.

Update, 1:02 p.m. Jan. 10: Luka-mania's march toward the 2019 NBA All-Star Game is alive and well, at least in the eyes of the fans.

In the second returns of All-Star voting revealed by the league Thursday, Mavericks rookie sensation Luka Doncic remained at No. 2 among Western Conference frontcourt vote-getters, again trailing only LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Oklahoma City's Paul George, Golden State's Kevin Durant and New Orleans' Anthony Davis rounded out the top five as they did after the first returns, just in a different order this time.

BOSTON -- It's LeBron and The Don, as far as fans are concerned in early returns for the NBA All-Star Game.

Mavericks' teenage sensation Luka Doncic has come in at No. 2 among Western Conference frontcourt players, trailing only LeBron James in the league's first release of fan voting that began on Christmas.

Debate if you want about why Doncic is listed as a front-court player, but it probably helps his chances of making the All-Star Game next month in Charlotte. The West backcourt is stacked with Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul and others.

Doncic was also named NBA Rookie of the Month for the second straight time. The last Maverick to do so was Jay Vincent in 1982.

James leads the West vote-getters with just over 1 million selections. Doncic has 679,839 votes, placing him ahead of Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Paul George, among others.

He's seventh in voting among all players.

The fans, along with a panel of players and media members will select the starters. Voting for the starters ends Jan. 21.

Coaches will select the seven reserves from each conference. Once all starters and reserves are selected, the top vote-getters in each conference will have a draft to field the two respective teams.

The last rookie to make the All-Star Game was the Clippers' Blake Griffin in 2011. The only other rookie since 2000 to make it was Houston's Yao Ming in 2003.

Doncic is averaging 19.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5 assists per game and is shooting 37.6 percent from 3-point range.

Former Cowboy Dez Bryant also cast his support for Doncic on social media.

It would mean a lot to me if you would vote for my boy Luke Doncic for the NBA All-Star game. Here’s how you do it. Visit https://t.co/JJqBRZb8dc or just google Luka Doncic and it’ll take you there. Let’s get our boy to Charlotte. Go Mavs and go Luka!